


Some Distant Part of the Universe

by Leahelisabeth (fortheloveofcamelot)



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic, Farscape
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, First Meetings, Gen, M/M, Pre-Relationship, farscape au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 11:11:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17917646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortheloveofcamelot/pseuds/Leahelisabeth
Summary: Neil has escaped Earth, travelling through a wormhole across the universe, only to be a picked up by a living space ship full of escaped criminals.  But even here, so far from everything he's left behind, he can't seem to outrun his past.





	Some Distant Part of the Universe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [exyandreil](https://archiveofourown.org/users/exyandreil/gifts).



> A pinch hit for the AFTG Exchange Valentine's Day round.

Neil took a deep breath and hit the accelerator. He was only going to get one shot at this and he knew it. He could hear an unidentified rattling behind him but he couldn’t think about that now. He would be just as dead if he stayed behind than if his ship fell apart in the vacuum of space.

His breath caught in his throat as the wormhole opened in front of him. His mother’s last calculations were correct. He could see another ship breaking the atmosphere behind him but it was already too late. He was in the entrance and it would close behind him.

He exited the wormhole into chaos. A large ship, golden and round with three long tails that came to a point behind, was in the center of a maelstrom of black ships. One of them was flying straight at him. His controls were slow to respond so it clipped him as it came past and pinwheeled out of control, crashing into a nearby asteroid and blowing up. Neil didn’t have time to think about the loss of life as the minor collision knocked something loose and he realized he was losing air.

He couldn’t see a leak in the cockpit so it must be in his oxygen tank. Making a split second decision, he steered his ship toward the big golden one. He didn’t have many memories from his childhood, shadowed as they were by pain and fear, but this ship looked safer than the menacing black, all angles and points, sleek and deadly.

The people on the ship must have realized he wasn’t a threat because a tractor beam reached out and pulled him inside, along with another ship in the vicinity. The air in his ship was already getting thin when he popped open the cockpit. He took a deep breath of thankfully compatible air and practically fell out of the ship. His head throbbed and he reached up to feel a damp patch over his right ear. He must have hit his head sometime between reentry and now.

The other ship remained closed and sat silently about 20 feet away from his own. He wasn’t brave enough to go any closer and he was beginning to feel nervous being so exposed in the wide open hangar.

A little yellow robot on wheels rolled up and beeped at him. His head was spinning but he pulled himself to his feet and followed it down a hallway, stopping part of the way to lean against the walls as the floor pitched beneath him.

He stopped short as a familiar language reached his ears. It had been more than a decade since he had last heard a Luxan speak and it was exciting and terrifying all at once. He stood in the doorway to the cockpit and stopped gaping. He saw the Luxan but also a Delvian, a Hynerian, and a few others from races he had never encountered before, at least as far as he remembered. 

As he listened, the sounds around him slowly began to take shape as his long dormant translator microbes did their job.

“If you don’t get that control collar off now, we won’t be going anywhere,” the Luxan growled.

“Peace, Luxan. I almost have it. Please be patient,” the Delvian said calmly, even as her hands flew faster than he could see over the control panel. Eventually, something sparked and shorted out and an explosion rocked the ship.

“Prepare for starburst,” the Delvian said, looking all too smug.

Neil was not prepared. He went flying back, hitting his head on the wall again. The Luxan stood over him as his consciousness faded and Neil had a sudden burst of fear, because of any alien that could be standing over him now, why was it the one face he remembered?

* * *

Neil’s mouth tasted awful and he couldn’t summon enough spit to separate his tongue from the roof of his mouth. He groaned and opened his eyes, startling as he locked eyes with a Sebacean peacekeeper crouched beside him on the floor.

When he noticed that Neil’s eyes were open, the other man stood and backed away. Neil sat up and scooted back until he reached a wall. They were in a room with three solid walls, and one made up of curving metal slabs. It seemed to be some kind of jail cell. The peacekeeper was blond and looked so human that if Neil had not known better, he would have assumed the man was from Earth.

“Aren’t you a little short?...” Neil choked back and didn’t say, “for a peacekeeper.” Because Neil Josten was human. Neil Josten had never set foot on another planet besides Earth. Neil Josten didn’t know that aliens existed, much less that this alien was called a Sebacean and was part of an elite military force that policed this part of the galaxy. Neil Josten was here by accident.

Something flickered in the Sebacean’s eyes and with a flash of silver, Neil was pinned to the wall, the glint of a knife altogether too close to his left eye for comfort. “Name and identification number,” he said, nothing but boredom showing on his face.

“My name is Neil Josten. I don’t have an identification number,” Neil gasped, shrinking back from the blade.

“Identification number, now,” the blond pressed the knife closer and Neil was sure he would cut his eyelid if he so much as blinked.

“Andrew, stop, let him go,” a voice came from the doorway to their cell.

Both Andrew and Neil turned to look at the intruder. And Neil was in for yet another surprise as he realized the other man was identical to the one still straddling his thighs.

Andrew stood and stared at the other man, eyebrow raised and showing the closest thing to a real emotion that Neil has seen so far.

The other man faltered. “It’s me,” he said. “It’s Aaron...don’t you recognize me?”

“Of course, I see your face every time I look in the mirror, dear brother. What I’m not sure of is why you are on the other side of that locked door,” Andrew walked closer to the door and Aaron drew back, making sure he wasn’t within arm’s reach.

“I thought you’d be happy. I finally found a way for us to be free,” Aaron’s mouth drew down in a frown.

“I’m never happy,” Andrew scowled.

“Aaron, stop antagonizing them and let them out. They aren’t prisoners,” a gentle voice came from the side. Neil saw the Delvian from the cockpit walk gracefully into view. She was dressed plainly like a priestess but she did not have her head shaved as was typical of their clergy. Her hair was grown out to her shoulders and the ends were tipped with bright colours that contrasted nicely against the deep blue of her skin. She pressed her palm to the wall, touching something Neil could not see and moments later, part of the wall swung up and away, leaving them free to exit.

“I am Pa’u Renee. Please let me know if you need anything to make you more comfortable,” she smiled. Neil nodded but had no intentions of taking her up on her offer. His mother had always said never to trust a Delvian and looking at this woman’s calm but deep eyes, he was inclined to agree.

“I’m Neil,” he said simply.

“Let me introduce you to the rest of us,” Renee said, sweeping down the hallway without looking to see whether he would follow. “This is a Leviathan ship. Are you familiar with the concept?”

Neil shook his head because Neil Josten was only familiar with Earth’s method of space travel.

“Yes, well she is actually a living ship. She consents to carry us from place to place and we take care of her and give her a purpose. Her name is Abby,” Renee continued.

Neil nodded, trying to look shocked.

They reached the cockpit once more and Renee led him first to a clamshell structure that he hadn’t noticed before.

“Coach?” Renee asked and a hologram appeared in the clamshell of a strange creature that Neil had never seen. “This is Neil. He is the one we picked up in the strange ship. Neil, this is our pilot. His name is Wymack but we all call him coach. He keeps the ship functioning properly.”

“This is Seth,” she said as they passed the Hynerian. Neil shuddered as he saw the squat, hairy form. God, they were ugly creatures.

“Dominar Seth,” he whined. “I rule over a million subjects. Why do you never add that part?”

Renee swept on. “This is Allison,” she said, her smile much more genuine as she stopped Neil in front of a tall, beautiful woman with monochromatic skin and hair and dressed all in grey. Allison reached out and ran her hand down Renee’s arm, giving her a look that made Neil feel uncomfortable just to witness.

“Such a pretty face,” Allison purred, turning her attention toward him. She reached out to stroke his cheek and Neil flinched back violently. Allison laughed and Neil felt his face heat under her gaze. He was only too happy to move on.

“Matt and Dan,” Renee continued. They were both tall with dark skin and reddish brown curls sweeping back from high foreheads. Neil nodded. The woman sized him up, nodding coolly while the man grinned widely at him, somewhat resembling a stray puppy he had once found in an alley and taken care of for a week before his mother found out.

“And lastly, this is Kevin,” Renee said.

Neil took a moment to compose himself and hope that the last dye job was still fresh enough, the coloured contacts turning his eyes from brown to blue were convincing, and of course that the decade that had passed had also changed his face enough that Kevin wouldn’t remember him.

Kevin was taller than he remembered, towering over him by a good foot and a half and his beard had grown in. There was no flicker of recognition in his eyes.

“We’re wasting time,” Aaron interrupted. “We need to go get Nicky. You know the peacekeepers will take him once they realize that I’ve escaped and Andrew is missing.”

“We will,” Renee soothed. “We’re already on the way. But we have to be careful. We don’t wish to be recognized. We can’t help Nicky if we’re all back in prison.”

Neil used their argument as a distraction to slip away. He made it back to his ship and gave her a quick inspection. He groaned when he found the crater in her life support systems. If he left now, he wouldn’t get far. He crawled into the cockpit and ripped up the seat to find the secret compartment underneath. He pulled out his mother’s old and faded journal that contained all the wormhole knowledge she had managed to collect during her lifetime. He stuffed it up under his shirt in lieu of a better hiding place and went to return to the others. He thought he caught a glimpse of blond hair out of the corner of his eye but when he turned, there was no one there. 

He squared his shoulders and crept back into the cockpit. No one had even noticed he was gone. But eyes were boring holes in his back and he turned to see Andrew watching him with a look of practiced indifference. Neil looked back, giving no ground. He wasn’t going anywhere for now.


End file.
